The UK has the world's fifth highest rate of a type of diabetes in children, according to a health charity.

Diabetes UK says 24.5 per 100,000
children under 14 in the UK are diagnosed every year with Type 1 diabetes which, unlike the other
main strand, Type 2, is not linked to lifestyle or obesity factors.

Of the 89
countries included in the charity's data, only Finland, Sweden, Saudi Arabia
and Norway have higher rates than the UK.

The UK
rate is more than double that in France and Italy; and in Papua New Guinea and
Venezuela, which have the joint lowest reported rates in the world, just 0.1
per 100,000 develop the condition a year.

Scientists
do not fully understand why there is such wide variation, but genetics is
thought to play a role.

Type
1 diabetes, where the body
does not produce insulin, can lead to serious illness and even death if it is
not diagnosed quickly.

In the UK
only 9% of parents are aware of its symptoms and a quarter of the 2,000
children a year who develop diabetes are
only diagnosed once they are already ill, according to the charity.

It
suggests the UK rate is so high as parents are unaware of the four main
symptoms for Type 1 diabetes:
frequent urinating; excessive thirst; extreme tiredness; and unexplained weight
loss.

Barbara
Young, chief executive of Diabetes UK,
said the charity also wants to highlight the need for good quality healthcare
for children with diabetes.
Currently only 6% of children with the condition are recorded as getting the
eight checks suggested by the National Institute for Health and Clinical
Excellence.

Ms Young
said: "The fact that the UK has a relatively high number of children
developing Type 1 diabetes also
means it is vital that we are able to offer first-class healthcare once
children are diagnosed.

"But
too many children are not getting the recommended checks and have high blood
glucose levels, while another big issue is that young people are also being
lost in the system when the time comes to transfer from paediatric to adult
services.

"Type
1 diabetes is a
serious condition that can lead to devastating complications and early death if
not managed properly, and this is why children with Type 1 diabetes need to set off on the
right path in terms of managing their condition well from the beginning. It is
a tragedy that all too often this is not happening."

In the
UK, around 3.7 million people have diabetes,
with 2.9 million living with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

As many
as seven million people are at high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and, if current trends
continue, an estimated five million people will have diabetes by 2025.